


Camp Wolfstar

by sammyjhand



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Camp, F/M, M/M, Marauders, Modern Marauders (Harry Potter), Slow Burn, jily, sleep away camp, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:00:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29767605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammyjhand/pseuds/sammyjhand
Summary: Remus Lupin finds himself convinced, by none other than Lily Evans, that working at an American sleep-away camp is the best way to spend his summer, and has not a clue as to what he's getting himself into by agreeing to that. He finds himself quite liberated, being in a place where not one person has expectations of who he should be, and finds out much more about himself during three months in America surrounded by new friends than he could have anticipated.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. June 5

June 5

“Are you sure you’ve packed everything? Towel, blanket, swimming costume?” Remus’s mother asks in a wavering voice. Remus sighs deeply, viscerally feeling the worry and anxiousness coming off her voice through his mobile phone. He takes his hand off the handle of his luggage and pinches the spot between his eyes, shutting them fiercely. 

“For the final time, yes, Mum, I packed the essentials. And I’m off to America, not the dunes of Egypt. There will be plenty of opportunity to buy whatever I’ve forgotten when I get there,” he huffs back at her, unable to hide his irritation at the redundant question. She had only asked him five times a day for the past two weeks. Remus hears his mother sniff from the other side of the conversation, and he stiffens at the wave of guilt that washes over him. 

“I’ll call you whenever I can, Mum, I promise. I’ll send e-mails, and I’ll try to send as many photos as I can,” he reassures her in a comforting voice. “I’ll only be gone three months, that’s less than I’m usually gone for a term!” 

“Oh, I know that, Remus,” she snaps quickly. “I’ll just miss you this summer,” she sighs in a shaky voice, and Remus can see the exact face she’s making in the eye of his mind. She’s probably sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea either made or brewing, chin propped on her fist, twisting her mouth to the side while she tries to reason with her momma-bear feelings about Remus being off in a foreign country for months on end. The longest he had ever been away from home was the three terms he had spent at university, but even then he was only a train ride away from his parents who made it a point to visit every month or so. Before that, the occasional weekend trip with his mates were really the only times he had been away from his family, and Remus would be lying to himself to say he wasn’t also nervous about the time and distance he was about to spend away from home. 

He’d sooner eat pants than tell her that, though, with the way she had been pestering him for months about his decision to fuck off to America for the entire summer. 

“Remus!”

A familiar voice rang out through the bustling crowd in the terminal Remus had paused in to inform his mother of his arrival at the airport, and his head snaps up at the call. He wildly searches the area for red-- the telltale sign of Lily Evans-- although after sizing up the majority of the crowd, he decides he simply will not be able to find her due to a certain height issue on her end. 

“Remus?” His mother interjects his search. “Are you still there?”

“Yeah, listen, mum,” he mumbles off-hand. “I’ve got to go, Lily just spotted me.”

“You better call me as soon as you land and not a moment later, Remus Lupin, and I mean that!” She sputters out as quickly as she can, fully aware of the slip she was currently being given. 

“Mhm, love you.” Remus pockets his phone before grabbing tight at his rolling luggage and tugs it behind himself in pursuit of Lily. He spots a row of benches ahead, and as he zeros in on one empty bench that looks just perfect to step on and get a better vantage point, he sees a flash of long, auburn locks and a face so lit up with excitement he can’t help the bought of giddiness that takes over him. 

Lily basically vibrates with excitement as Remus closes in on her, and when he finally reaches the bench she’s situated on top, she practically launches herself into his arms, throwing hers around his neck and squealing with delight directly into his ear. 

Remus laughs loudly. “Bold of you to assume I’d catch you,” he huffs out as he sets her on the floor, and she waves him off with a roll of her eyes. 

“As if you’d ever drop me. Oh, Remus, I can’t believe you’re actually coming! This is so exciting, this summer is going to be insane,” Lily gushes, her hands twisted together in front of her chest and eyes twinkling with pure, unadulterated happiness. 

“I can’t believe you actually convinced me to come,” Remus admits, half jokingly. He hitches up the backpack on his shoulders before gesturing at his shirt with both hands.

“Turns out forest green  _ is  _ my color, though, eh?” He prompts jokingly. 

Lily’s eyes dart to his torso, where the  _ Camp Wolfstar _ t-shirt she had given him at the job fair months prior was on display. 

“I mean, hey, I’m just happy to hear that after the actual fit you threw over having to wear green and white every day,” she teases at him, to which he aims a light poke to her ribs in retaliation. 

“The white,” Remus throws at her, “was never the issue. Forest green is just a questionable clothing color in general.” 

Lily smiles and rolls her eyes again. “Better get used to it, Buck-o, today’s just day one of many to come. Now, c’mon,” she urges him by the elbow, and Remus quickly gathers his carry-on to follow close behind Lily as she takes off toward a further terminal. “You have to meet my friends, they’re great, you’ll love them.”

Remus’s insides go slightly haywire at the mention of meeting Lily’s friends, simply because Remus had never been entirely outgoing in the sense of meeting and making friends right off the bat, which surely sounds silly as he was about to embark on the journey that was American summer camp where meeting and making friends right off the bat was precisely what he would be expected to do. Remus swallows down the anxiety creeping up his throat and reminds himself of half the reason he agreed to work at a camp in the first place: he wants to try to get over his social inhibitions. Remus knows he’s a hoot and a half, he knows that, but he’s sick of the hurdle that stands in front of him every time he is confronted with a new face. 

“These friends, are they friends from Wolfstar, or are they uni mates you’ve coerced along like you’ve done me?” Remus questions her, not really caring either way. They were new to him regardless of their friendship origin story. 

“Well, neither, really,” Lily gives him, which isn’t much. Remus simply throws her a look. 

“Friends from childhood, who also happen to go to the same uni, and who also work at Wolfstar. Although, I will take credit for that. I worked there my first summer by myself and had such a good time I convinced them to tag along the following. Look at us now, though, expanding the group!” Lily trills. Her excitement was truly palpable, and that, too, helps squash any remaining stress Remus is feeling about meeting new people. 

Lily, hand still on Remus’s elbow, makes a quick turn into the seating area at gate 36 in terminal B, and drags him towards a group of buzzing men. Well, Remus thinks to himself, mostly buzzing men. There is one, stretched across a row of seats with a jacket stuffed under his head and arms crossed over his chest, clearly not handling the early morning wake up call as well as the others. 

Remus quickly clocks that all three boys are also clad in the green Wolfstar t-shirt, thank god for that. He desperately wants to avoid pronouncing his newbie camp-counselor status, seeing as being the center of attention is not his style regardless of his quest to put himself out there.

One of the boys perks right up at the sight of Lily approaching, and looks so quickly to the hand of hers that’s wrapped around Remus’s arm then back to her face that Remus thinks he imagined it. This boy clambers to his feet quickly and is on top of them in a second.

“Evans! Nice of you to rejoin us. Petey and I were just about to start another round of Uno, you in?” He whizzes out at her, words full of hope and green eyes full of desire behind a pair of round, arguably hipster-esque glasses. Remus quickly erases any irritation he felt toward this man not acknowledging his presence yet because it’s so vividly clear that he is so taken with the girl in front of him he cannot see past her. 

“James,” she huffs, good-natured as usual. “You know I can’t. I have to greet the newcomers at the terminal entrance!”

Now that he’d been given the slip, James turns to Remus and throws his thumb in Lily’s direction. 

“This one, so authoritative. I shouldn’t even be surprised the camp agency scouted her out to be an ambassador,” he huffs, clearly only slightly joking. “James Potter, you must be Remus,” he says with a hand extended for Remus to shake. 

Remus grins and grips his hand back. “Nice to meet you,” he says, before leaning around James to look at the blonde fellow sat on the floor, stacking the Uno cards in front of him. 

“You must be Petey, then,” Remus gives him with a smile and half wave. 

“Peter’s fine,” he says back with a smile, throwing James a side-eye for the use of the nickname. Peter points down at the stack of cards with a raised eyebrow, which Remus takes as an invitation into the game. 

“I’m in if you’ll have me.”

“Perfect, it’s much more fun with three and Sirius here would rather pretend he’s sleeping than partake in airport activities,” James interjects loudly in the direction of the man on the seats. Sirius flips over, facing the backs of the chairs now, and sends the bird in Jame’s direction from over his shoulder. 

James leans in close to Remus and faux-whispers. “He hasn’t had his morning coffee yet. I wouldn’t interact with him for at least another one-to-two hours,” he warns Remus, who just stands subject to the interactions happening around him with a grin on his face. 

“Fuck off, Potter, stop chatting shit about me to Remus,” Sirius sends back, voice muffled with sleep. Remus can’t help but laugh and feel a bloom in his stomach as it feels as though this group couldn’t be anymore welcoming. Maybe it was due to Remus’s pre-determined task of being less apprehensive of new friends, but he embraces a rush of ease through his shoulders as he plunks his backpack down on the floor under the seat where Sirius’s feet lay before joining Peter in a criss-cross fashion on the carpet. 

Lily beams at the sight of Remus making himself comfortable with her group, and apparently feels comfortable leaving him with them because the second Remus is dealt his hand of cards, she bids them farewell for now and scampers back through the terminal. James joins Peter and Remus to form a three-man-circle and gives them both a hard thump on the back.

“Well, boys, nothing like friendship building with a friendly game of Uno, right?” He spouts out, a wicked grin on his face. 

Remus looks to Peter with mock fear written on his face, but it quickly changes to real fear as Peter is sending warning signals to Remus with his own. And, as it turns out, Remus should have trusted the man that grew up with James Potter and surely had some background knowledge regarding James and his competitiveness, because after twenty minutes and the third Wild-Draw-Four card in a row aimed his way, Remus is prepared to set fire to the stack of cards.

“Bullshit, how are there even that many in the deck?” Remus puffs out, unable to disguise his anger. James, looking quite chuffed, shakes his shoulders in silent laughter.

“I feel like you can learn a lot about a person just with a game of Uno, don’t you agree?” He teases Remus, taking in his furrowed brow and tense hunch. 

Remus grumbles from behind his hand of twelve-- or possibly more, he refuses to count-- cards. 

“Yeah, like you have the luck of the Irish coursing through your veins when it comes to a children’s card game, or even that you may be a tad competitive?” He throws at James, who takes it with humility and sends out another laugh. Peter, on the other hand, simply rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, his luck isn’t exclusive to Uno, I promise. You’ll find out soon enough, I suppose,” Peter grumbles out, slapping down a Reverse on the discard pile. Remus raises his eyebrow at the two boys, who exchange knowing glances that only two people with sizeable experience together could. 

“What do you mean,” Remus asks, while putting his own card down. 

“Oh, nothing, just that this bloke’s probably the luckiest in all of England. Good looks, good grades, good parents, money, girls,” Peter lists off wistfully, extra wist on the ‘girls’ part. “When we get to camp, not only will all of the returning lasses be all over him, but the newcomers who have never been graced with the presence of the chosen one over here will fall to their knees before him, you just wait,” he warns Remus, pointing a finger at him. 

“Wow, all that  _ and  _ he kills at Uno. Do the rest of us really stand a chance, James, or should I send it on home now?” Remus teases him, although judging by the flush on his cheeks, Peter’s soliloquy already has him quite flustered. 

“Okay, Romeo, settle down over there,” James directs at Peter while dragging both hands through his wildly unruly, dark hair. His biceps flash for a moment when he grips his hair quite tight before letting go, and Remus clocks just how attractive James actually is. No wonder the girls at camp are so taken with him, Remus thinks to himself. Funny, personable, and fit. 

“I don’t know where you get off going on and on about the girls, Pete, considering you seem to have landed quite a few last summer,” James points out, trying to put some of the spotlight onto someone else. 

Peter rolls his eyes and gears up to throw back a retort, when Remus buts in and tries to save anyone from actually getting angry. 

“Lily mentioned the counselors treat camp like a sex free-for-all, but I didn’t really believe her. I suppose she wasn’t kidding then?” Remus questions them. 

James whoops loudly, pulling a disgruntled noise out of the semi-sleeping body behind Remus. He throws a look over his shoulder to peek at Sirius, who is flipping back onto his other side now, clearly unable to get comfortable enough to actually fall asleep. 

“You have no idea, mate,” James says, leaning in close to Remus and waggling his eyebrows suggestively. “It’s like two months of reality television worthy hook-ups, that place. I dream about it when I’m home.”

“That’s because you’ve never been subject to the drama that inherently follows that many hook-ups in a controlled environment, Jimmy-boy.” The voice that speaks is gruff and filled with sleep, although amusement can clearly be heard through. Remus turns his head again and is met with an icy blue gaze set on him through half-shut eyes. Sirius stays exactly where he is, but joins the conversation from his laying down position.

“I’m Sirius, as I’m sure you’ve deduced,” Sirius gives to Remus, who nods in return. “Don’t let this fool have you seeing Wolfstar through rose colored glasses just yet, you’ll be able to decide for yourself soon enough.”

“Stick with us, though. Can’t have you being snatched up by another squad when we get there,” James says pointedly in Remus’s direction, and once again the blossom of acceptance soars in his chest. He had never been embraced by a person so quickly, much less three at once. Although, Remus thinks, Sirius could be on the fence about him. His eyes don’t give much away and it’s not like Remus has had the opportunity to chat him up yet. He decides he’ll come back around to his assessment of Sirius. 

“You really couldn’t have ended up with a better group of people to head in with, though. We run that shit, and Lily, she  _ literally  _ runs that shit. I’ll be surprised if she isn’t our boss this summer,” Pete says, tapping the cards in front of him in attempt to gather James and Remus back into the game.

His attempts are entirely squashed, though, as Lily comes traipsing back over to their congregation with two other folks wearing that same Camp Wolfstar t-shirt and makes her presence known with a loud clap.

She looks down at her watch and back to the surrounding people. “So,” she starts, fully engulfed in an all-business persona, making Remus smirk hard in an attempt not to scoff. Remus was personally used to film-class-Lily, stoned-out-of-her-mind-Lily, and hunker-down-in-the-library-Lily, so boss-Lily was a new spin on the gal he’d grown rather fond of and Remus finds it quite out of character, yet endearing to say the least. 

“Boarding should start in about forty minutes, give or take, so if you’d like a snack or to use the loo, now’s your chance,” she says firmly. She looks around expectantly, waiting for everyone to hop to it at her final word but it seems like the majority of the group are working with five-in-the-morning brain still. 

Remus is first to move, gracefully unfolding his long legs and reaching his full height, bringing his backpack up with him. 

“Loo, then coffee. Anyone care to join, or want me to grab something?” He asks politely, looking even at the two newcomers.

“I’m Remus, by the way,” he adds for their sake. 

“Mary,” the shorter girl with bouncy curls says.

“Dorcas,” says the other gal, significantly taller and paler than the first. 

“I’ll come with,” Remus hears from behind him, where he looks to see Sirius stretching his arms over his head, shuddering all the while. Remus can’t help it as his eyes wander down to the strip of fair skin exposed just above Sirius’s black jeans, and doesn’t care to justify why his eyes linger on the strip of dark hair that disappears into the trousers. He does silently curse Lily, though, for failing to mention to him that her friends were quite frankly fit as hell prior to meeting them, and he plans on confronting her about just that. Remus is moved from his thoughts as Sirius completes his yawn and stretch, and attempts to shake the early morning tiredness from his body as he reaches into his own pack and plucks out his wallet before slipping it into the back pocket of his jeans. 

“Oi,” James huffs at Sirius. “Grab me a frap while you’re there, yeah?” He shines a grin that would be impossible to give a ‘no’ to, and Sirius rolls his eyes but gives him a nod anyways.

“Leave it to you to want a coffee milkshake at five thirty in the morning, you twelve-year-old,” Sirius teases him, walking past Remus and flicking his head to beckon him to follow. Remus snickers as he sees James throw them the two finger salute as they walk in the direction of a restroom presumably. Remus had never been in an airport in general, much less this specific one, therefore he blindly follows Sirius until they reach their destination. 

Remus seems to finish up in the loo first, and pulls out his phone to distantly scroll through while waiting for Sirius to emerge from the bathroom. Only seconds after Remus pulls up his email app does Sirius step out of the doorway, wiping water off his hands and onto his jeans and beckons Remus along with a raise of his eyebrows. They fall into step together and although the silence is quite comfortable, Remus feels he ought to strike up a conversation. A knot in his stomach stops him, though, and he finds himself spending their walk to the coffee shop wondering why he’s feeling so intimidated by this man he truly knows nothing about. 

“So,” Sirius starts as they fall in line behind about ten other patrons. “How’d Lily manage to drag you off to America? You guys met in your lessons together, yeah?” He asks with genuine curiosity, and Remus breathes a sigh of relief at not having to start the conversation. 

“Yeah, we take film theory together and kind of just hit it off. The class is filled with a bunch of dinks, so as the only two non-dinks we had to band together,” Remus jokes, and Sirius gives him a side-eye and smirk combo that eludes to him having a greater knowledge of their friendship than he let on. 

“I dunno, from what I’ve heard it sounds like you two might be the resident dinks of the class,” he sends at Remus through a half smile. Remus would probably be more off-put if Lily’s friends  _ hadn’t _ heard any of their film class escapades than knowing she shared their stories, so the laugh Remus emits comes easy and true. 

“I mean,” he starts. “It’s film theory, the profs are just begging us to show up high.”

It’s Sirius’s turn to laugh as he spits out, “Begging on their knees, I’m sure. Lily said during the last incident you asked the same question three separate times before she had to excuse herself to the hallway ‘cause she was laughing so hard,  _ and  _ you wore your sunglasses for half the class before you realized you had them on. How’ve neither of you been kicked out yet?” He ponders, a wide grin showing off his immaculately pearly whites in a grand display. 

Remus’s cheeks warm at the memory. “Yeah we definitely smoked too much before that lesson, I had to angle my desk away from hers to stop myself giggling,” he admits. “All in good fun, though. Anyway, she wore a Wolfstar shirt to class one day and I asked her about it, and it was basically over from that point forward. I’m sure you know, but once she gets started on Wolfstar...” Remus trails off, sending a knowing look at Sirius who clearly knows exactly what Remus is referring to.

“There’s absolutely no stopping that train once you’re on it,” he agrees. “Fair enough,” Sirius gives him. 

The knot in Remus’s stomach unclenches one iota. 

“Lily says you all are friends from way back, yeah?” He prompts Sirius to keep the conversation flowing at the comfortable pace they’ve established, afraid to let a silence go on too far as to not be able to get it back.

Sirius nods as he scours the menu, even though he seems the type to have a usual order in mind. Black, Remus guesses to himself. Hmm, iced black at that. 

“Yeah, been in school together for ages, we have. Although James, Lily and I picked Pete up towards the end of secondary school and adopted him into the group. As for uni, James and I knew we’d be a package deal anywhere, but Lily and Pete ending up there was just a happy coincidence,” he tells Remus. They both step forward as the line moves. 

“And look at you all now, world travelling friends, eh?” Says Remus, taking his own gander over the menu. 

“Welcome to the club, Remus,” Sirius says as he steps up to the till, and Remus perks his ears to see if his presumption had been correct. 

“Morning! One large nitro cold brew, black please, and a medium vanilla bean frappe.” 

Right on point. Remus mentally pats himself on the back for being correct about an utterly useless piece of information before he steps up to the neighboring till beside Sirius. 

“What can I get for you, hon?” The barista asks him. She stares intently over the computer at Remus, making him feel slightly rushed at making a drink choice, although to be fair he could have decided while waiting in line.

“I’ll have a small, black tea with a splash of almond milk, please,” he decides quickly, immediately slightly disappointed with his rash, rather boring decision. 

“Milk’s at the end of the bar,” she says with a pointed look towards where the canisters of milk sit, and Remus sheepishly nods while inserting his card into the machine. 

He walks to where Sirius waits for James’s drink, as his was quite simple and came out quickly, and is met with the same girl who was on till lidding his cup and sliding it across the bar towards him, smiling brightly. 

“Cheers.”

A few minutes and three drinks later, the two boys make their way back through the crowd of people rushing to make it to their own gates and arrive to find Lily giving the group of counselors a rundown of how the rest of the day was to play out. 

They’d be arriving in New York City at nine in the morning, a mind boggling time switch considering their flight from London was at six, but nobody else seemed perturbed by that tidbit so Remus chalked his awe down to the fact he’d never truly traveled before, and let it go. From the airport, they were to take a train to Pennsylvania Station where they’d catch a bus to a small town in the Catskill Mountains called Phonicia. At that point, they’d be met with some staff from Camp Wolfstar who would drive them the rest of the way to the campgrounds where they’d spend the next two months of their lives. Remus could hardly wrap his mind around the thought of going to America, let alone making his way into the mountains of New York and settling down in one spot long enough to get acclimated with it. He thought Lily was insane to suggest he accompany her and her friends on the adventure, but hearing how close he was to embarking on the journey  _ for real _ leaves him with a dizzy head and pounding heart. In a good way, though. 

Just as Lily’s breakdown comes to a close, a loud voice overhead makes themself known. 

“Calling all passengers in group A, flight 213, Heathrow to JFK to please make your way to the queue, we are prepared to begin boarding.” 

Remus pulls his backpack around to his front, quickly snatching his boarding pass from a side pocket (placed there two days ago for easy access in moments like these) and checks his boarding group. He feels a presence over his shoulder along with a slight draft on his neck, presumably the outward breath of whoever’s looking down his shoulder. 

“Group C, me too,” says Sirius, who Remus notices is stretched up as far as his tip toes will take him so he can peer down at the ticket clutched in his hands. 

Remus smirks at Sirius over his shoulder. “If you wanted to see my ticket you could have just asked, I’d have brought it down to your level. I’m not a monster,” he claims, completely deadpan but half-smile still on his face. Remus watches Sirius go through quite the face journey, from shock, to mirth, to accusatory as he narrows his eyes at Remus. 

James and Peter must overhear the dig as well, and are whooping with laughter in front of Remus. 

“Shit, Lily, I love this guy, can we keep him?” James jokes to Lily, who beams at the boys having a laugh together. 

“Uh, duh, that’s why I brought him,” she gives him.

“Finally someone to bring Mr. Fucking Perfect back down to earth. How’s it feel, Sirius, not so tall anymore, eh?” Peter throws at Sirius, kicking the man while he’s still down. Remus presses his lips together to stop his smile from growing any wider while he watches heat creep up Sirius’s neck at all the offenses being thrown his way. Remus might have felt a little bad about it if he didn’t see mirth dancing in the blue of his eyes. 

“Alright, alright, ha ha, he’s got a few inches on me. Way to get a man where it hurts, Remus,” Sirius grumbles playfully, and at this point Remus is very excited about the prospect of spending the summer with people who can take a joke and run with it. 

“As much as I love laughing at Sirius’s expense,” Lily starts, smirking in his direction, “we should start queueing up.”

Their group of seven make their way behind boarding group B in the queue and are babbling amongst one another to find out who’s seated near who, and Remus comes to find he’ll be seated directly next to Lily, who completely glows at having Remus to herself for eight whole hours. Remus pretends not to notice James’s glower at the revelation that he would  _ not  _ be spending the next eight hours seated next to Lily, and prickles at the thought of any negative reactions towards Remus James may have. He’d nip that in the bud if he notices any further development, Remus decides. 

It’s their turn to scan their boarding passes and enter the plane, and while Remus is borderline bursting with excitement, he feels slight flutters of panic spread across his chest. He’d never been on a flight before, much less such a long one, and knew half of his worries were simply because he didn’t even know how he’d react to being in the air. He could be cool as a cucumber, he could pass the fuck out and get a full night’s sleep, or he could spend the whole thing breathing in and out of a paper bag like they do in the movies. This is all to be determined, and Remus resents the worry wart within himself for making him feel this way. 

The plane is larger than he expected; there are three columns of three seats stretching from behind first class all the way to the back of the plane. Luckily, Lily and Remus are seated on the left side of the plane against the window. Sirius and James, not finding themselves so lucky, are seated in the middle column of seats a few rows in front of Remus and Lily, and Dorcas, Mary, and Peter are scattered throughout the rest of the plane. 

They’re shuffling through the aisles, Sirius directly in front of Remus and Lily behind, and they stop and pause as each passenger in front of them has to lift their carry-ons into the overhead bins before they take their seats. Remus sees an opportunity to get in one last dig at Sirius and waits patiently until the moment is just right. 

James and Sirius reach their row of seats, and just as Sirius bends down to lift his black, hardcover carry-on suitcase by the side handle, Remus swoops in, brushing Sirius’s hand away and hoisting the case up himself. 

“Here, I can reach that for you,” he says in the most helpful yet patronizing tone he’s got. “I told you, all you had to do was ask.” Remus pushes the suitcase into the overhead bin and closes it with a snap before turning to take in Sirius’s reaction.

Remus hears James before he gets to see that, though, and he’s dropped into his seat in a fit of laughter. His mirth seems to echo throughout the aircraft, and disgruntled passengers send daggers in their direction, finding James simply too loud for five forty five in the morning. 

Sirius, on the other hand, gapes at Remus, who is having a hard time keeping in his own laughter, and stares at him openly speechless. He opens and closes his mouth a few times, bobbing like a fish, clearly trying to conjure up some words to throw back at Remus, but instead he tilts his head back and lets out a reluctant laugh. Remus would be lying to say he wasn’t slightly worried he went too far too soon with that joke, so once he sees Sirius give up trying to be offended, he too bursts into a fit of laughter.

“Oh, I want to be so mad at you for that,” Sirius laughs, eyes still wide in surprise that this man who he’s known for exactly one hour is taking the piss out of him already.

Remus wiggles his eyebrows. “...But?”

“But that was really funny, you little shit!” Sirius gives him. James is calming down, but he’s slid down in his seat and clutching his stomach still. 

Remus is about to reply in unabashed acknowledgement that, yes, he happens to be quite funny, but the line of people behind Lily decide they’ve officially had enough of their silly little show and are eager to get to their seats.

“Time to move it along, kids. You’re not the only ones on this flight,” a man a few people back shout over, and a gaggle of grumbles in agreeance are set their way. 

Sirius rolls his eyes as he slips into the row next to James and perches in his seat. Remus completely expects that to be the end of that, but is only half surprised when Sirius sends a smart-ass comment back to the man who spoke up. 

“Thanks for the enlightenment, sir. I do now see that there are actually other people on the flight, how curious,” he says, faux-wonder in his tone. Lily and Remus huff out laughter before shuffling down a few rows where Remus places both of their luggage in the overhead compartment and they fall into their seats, attempting to conceal their giggles. 

“What a great start to my first flight,” Remus gasps, throwing his head back against the headrest of his seat. “Making enemies before we’ve lifted off the ground.”

Lily giggles as she stuffs her face in Remus’s shoulder, trying to thwart the peal of laughter she’s still working through after Sirius’s back-sass. Remus glances up and sees their enemy pause next to the empty seat in their row, and he nudges Lily in the side, quickly wiping his own face clear of any remaining laughter as he makes eye contact with the man. Lily looks up, sobering immediately and flicks her eyes to meet Remus’s, and Remus is quite positive they’re sharing a similar thought. Please, for the love of christ, do not sit down next to us. 

They both release a not-so-discreet sigh of relief as he puts his bag in an overhead bin and sits down in the middle seat of the row across the aisle from them.

“God, I would have died,” whispers Lily, who slouches down into her seat and closes her eyes for a moment. In their haste to take a seat before, Lily slipped into the window seat and left the middle one for Remus. While Remus tried arguably too hard not to be a bother or burden at any given time, he would kick himself later if he didn’t advocate for the window seat. In every day dream he had leading up until this exact point, he pictured himself sat where she was, leaning his forehead against the oval window and watching the city of London disappear beneath him as they head across the Atlantic Ocean. He had a song picked out to listen to at takeoff weeks prior, and it would absolutely shatter his hopes and dreams of a dreamy first flight to have that taken away from him simply because he was afraid to possibly upset someone over a seat change. He taps gently on Lily’s forehead, and she doesn’t open her eyes but she raises her eyebrows as if to say, yes?

“I hate to do this, but I’d just about die for that window seat,” he tells her. “I’ve never been on a plane before and I just--” Remus rambles before Lily cuts him off. 

“Of course, you’ll probably be more comfortable here than in the middle anyways,” she concedes quickly. “Scoot, scoot!” 

Remus sends her an appreciative smile, lifting up the arm rest between them and scooting himself sideways while she lifts over his legs and plops into the middle seat. 

The rest of the plane fills up quickly, and Remus’s body is buzzing like a live wire. There’s a very fine line that stretches between excited nervousness and utter panic that Remus finds within himself, and he’s toeing the line precariously just by being here on this plane. But Lily and her friends had been nothing but kind and welcoming in the first hour of his journey, and although he usually tells himself there’s absolutely no weight in revelations like these, he can’t help but feel that that’s a good omen for the summer to come. Remus ignores the reasonable side of his brain, for once, and embraces that omen with open arms as he slips his headphones over his ears and disappears in the playlist he created for his travels. Lily has already stuffed her Camp Wolfstar hoodie up behind her neck and is bobbing her head in light sleep when the airplane finally begins to roll onto the runway, and Remus is entirely appreciative that he will have this moment by himself. 

He feels silly when his eyes begin to well with moisture, and when he blinks hard as the plane begins to careen forward, he feels wetness race down his cheeks. He presses his forehead against the window, taking a long breath in and holding it there in his lungs, only releasing as his stomach dips and they enter the sky. Tom Misch croons romantically in his ears, and Remus is ultimately thankful he nudged Lily for the window seat because he’s never felt the feeling that rushes through his body when he watches the lights of an about-to-wake London fade away behind them. He can’t describe why he’s crying, there are no sobs to shake through his chest, and he can’t even pinpoint a feeling of sadness. The rush twirling through his torso is so indescribably freeing, though, that Remus knows he’ll chase this feeling for as long as it takes to touch it again. 


	2. Switcheroo

Chapter 2

Remus startles himself awake with a seemingly loud intake of breath, almost a snore, and has his head on a swivel to see if he’s alerted anyone in his vicinity with the embarrassing noise. The plane is dark and silent apart from the faint clicking noise of somebody tapping away at the keys on their laptop and the collective deep breathing of the sleeping passengers, and from what he can deduce, mostly everyone seems to be asleep. Remus convinces himself that he simply imagined the snort that woke him, and he tucks back into the comfortable position he found with his legs stretched far beneath the seat in front of him and his head leaned against the now closed window. He found that while he thoroughly enjoyed seeing the city from thousands of feet in the air, looking down at the ocean was a whole different story. Choosing ignorance over anxiety was an easy choice for Remus, and he promptly closed the window as soon as his mind started to fixate on the endless ocean ahead.

He peeks over at Lily, who had been out cold since before the plane even took off, and finds her looking particularly adorable, wrapped in her hoodie like a blanket and head nestled down on her own shoulder. Remus hears her heady warning blare through his head, that he must take up any possible opportunity to sleep presented to him, because if there was one thing Camp Wolfstar failed to provide them it would be sufficient time to sleep. But Remus finds himself immensely awake after a two hour kip and feels in his bones that he won’t be returning to dreamland anytime soon, so he slips his book out of the backpack resting at his feet and twists the light above him so it flickers on. He points it directly at his book and away from Lily or her neighboring passenger, and tucks in for a while. 

After about a half hour or so of silent reading to himself, a flight attendant catches his attention quietly, as to not wake up any surrounding passengers. 

“Can I get you something to drink?” The woman asks politely. Remus nods excitedly, requesting yet another cup of tea with a considerate whisper, and the attendant is off to fetch it for him. Remus feels slightly naive, but accepting of the childlike giddiness rising within him at the mere thought of anyone fetching him a beverage, and although he’s sure they’ve asked anyone awake on the plane the same question, he feels doted on as she comes back with the cup. 

He thanks her more times than necessary after she pours in a splash of milk, and relaxes back into his seat to relish in the warmth the tea brings him. Eventually he’ll need to bother both Lily and the stranger to her left to scoot by them to get to the loo, but for the time being he closes his eyes, not in sleep but simply to rest. 

A short while later Remus is brought back to the real world as he feels Lily shift beside him, and he blearily opens his eyes to see her let out a mousy little yawn and stretch. 

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” Remus greets her quietly, and she grins back at him before bopping his nose with her pointer finger. 

“Hiya,” she whispers. “I hope you got in a nap, too, then?” 

Remus nods in assurance. “I did, I did. Couldn’t fall back to sleep, though, I’m way too wired,” he admits to her. She nods in understanding, clearly having been through this a time or two before and surely knows the exact emotions running rampantly through Remus’s body. 

“I remember nearly shitting myself the entire trip my first time going. I didn’t know anyone, I was basically alone apart from the camp ambassador that year. I cried a lot, that’s for sure,” Lily sighs. 

“Yeah, I’ve already done a bit of that, but I’m feeling good now. Happy nerves, I think.”

Lily hums in response, letting her eyes fall shut again and snuggling against Remus’s shoulder. Lily, Remus finds, grows more and more affectionate towards him as their friendship blossoms, and although Remus had never been one for platonic affection, he finds it rather comforting coming from her. In fact, just about every aspect of Lily’s personality made Remus feel so at ease that he found himself opening up to her in ways he had never opened up to anyone. If he hadn’t already done so much self identifying in the months prior to meeting her, Remus might have mistaken his feelings toward Lily as entirely romantic, but alas, she wasn’t his type. 

This train of thought leads Remus to rustle Lily’s comfortable position by nudging his shoulder against her ear. 

“Hmm?”

“How have you failed to mention, after an entire term of friendship, how fit your friends are?” Remus presses quietly, although it finally seems like much of the plane is coming back to life and he could probably raise his volume if he wanted. 

Lily giggles, lifting her head up off Remus’s shoulder and giving him a knowing look with a raised eyebrow.

“And what, set you up to walk in with your tail between your legs before you had even met them?” She teases, although he knows she’s not actually kidding. Remus fake scoffs at her insinuation and presses a hand to his chest.

“What, me? Being intimidated walking into an already established, fit ass group of friends? Never,” he tells her, and he’s secretly incredibly impressed at how well she had him pegged.

“Exactly,” she agrees with a giggle before leaning closer, clad with a look as though she’s about to spill some hot gossip. She props her elbow up on the arm rest between them and sticks her chin down on her fist, whispering, “But I know, right? Aren’t they just gorgeous?”

“Very,” Remus affirms, slightly annoyed at himself for exposing his attraction to them as early as a few hours into the trip. “Another thing you failed to mention is that James is completely enamored with you. What’s going on there?” He presses. 

Lily rolls her eyes, but Remus watches as a flush slowly creeps up her neck and into her cheeks and he’s sure she’s cursing her red-head qualities at that exact moment. 

“Oh, shut it. He’s in love with me, nothing new there,” she huffs out, as if she gives not a single shit that James, a fine specimen, absolutely hangs off her every word and stares at her like she’s the center of the galaxy. 

“How the hell are you being so casual about this? I know you’ve complained to me about being single, many times at that!” Remus scoffs. “He’s noteworthy, and the only things I’ve heard from you are about him being a knob,” he says, tone insisting for more information immediately. 

“Look, I stuck him in the friend-zone at the beginning of secondary, and that’s where he’s stayed,” she admits. “Although, recently I have been wondering why I’m so hellbent on keeping him there. I just know if I gave him a chance everyone would take the absolute piss out of me and I know that sounds like a stupid reason not to do it but… I also don’t want to fuck up our friendship, you know?” By the end of her explanation, she sounds unsure of herself or her reasoning, and maybe she’s even putting out her feelers for Remus’s input. 

Remus, quite unsure of how to respond, shrugs and thinks for a moment before he responds. 

“Well,” he starts. “You already kind of know where I stand on the whole ‘crushing within the group’ thing. I mean, I  _ was  _ James for a long time and albeit it was a completely different type of obstacle in the way in my personal case, I won’t sit here and pretend I’m not down with a little friends-to-lovers situation,” he levels with her, giving a slight shoulder shake at the end in attempt to lift her mood a tad. She does laugh a little, but it seems as though Remus hit a soft spot by bringing up James. 

“Lily, you can talk to me,” Remus tells her, sobering his voice just enough to let her know he’s not kidding. “I’m not going to judge you.”

She bites her lip and battles with herself internally, which Remus watches play out just by looking at her sparkling eyes, before conceding to tell him. 

“Okay but this stays between us. I mean it, Remus, even if you get all buddy-buddy with the boys this summer-- oh, which I really hope you will-- you can’t tell them,” she whispers in a spurt, leaning in yet closer to Remus. He matches her level and nods intently, fully open to the flood of information he’s about to receive. 

“We actually hooked up a few months ago,” says Lily, tucking a strand of fiery hair behind her ear and eyeing the space around her as if anyone who had a clue what they were talking about was listening in. 

“What!? When? Why didn’t you tell me, you absolute sneak!” Remus whisper-yells back at her. He sends a tizzy of finger pokes at her abdomen which she slaps away immediately.

“Because it was an accident, you dink! God, I was so embarrassed. We got so pissed at his and Sirius’s place, and we were the last two awake and we were joking around in his room and I crawled into his bed and we kind of just… Oh, I don’t need to paint the picture, you know how it went,” she sighs, sending Remus into a fit of his own.

“Oh, no no no,” he throws at her with a hand in the air. “I absolutely need a painted picture. Please, by all means possible, paint me a fucking picture Lilith. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this before,” he huffs. 

“Well if it makes you feel better, I haven’t even spoken it out loud since it happened. James and I… We haven’t, you know, talked about it or anything. We kind of just pretended it never happened, and by the time I finally grew the balls to acknowledge it and actually speak with him, he started fucking that bloody  _ Caroline  _ girl--” Remus cuts her off before she can go on any further, feeling that that sentence alone had enough to unpack to last them a decent amount of the remainder fo the plane ride. 

“So you had sex and didn’t speak of it after… but he’s been in love with you for years? That doesn’t add up, but I’ve more to address, so we’ll circle back. He’s been in love with you for  _ years _ , but he decides after you drunkenly hook up that it’s time to start shagging some other girl?” Remus inquires, to which Lily’s eyes widen and she nods her vigorously nods her head in agreement. 

“That’s what I’m saying. And I've really never hated any of the girls he’s brought around before, but, God, don’t get me started on her. You know I take pride in being an empowering woman, and loath girls shit talking other girls, but I can’t with this one. And the nerve, the fucking audacity of Potter to bring her around as if I didn’t finally succumb to his stupid charm…” Lily lets her eyes fall shut and takes a deep breath, calming herself down as she’s getting quite heated. Her shoulders drop and she opens her eyes, back to calm, cool, and collected Lily Evans. 

“I know it’s somewhat my fault, I’m the one who made sure not to get caught by myself with him at all costs for weeks, but I think it’s a really low move of him to force me to hang out with that absolute cow,” she huffs out angrily, rightly so. Remus can’t help but puff out a surprised laugh, though, as it is so rare to hear Lily bash on anyone, let alone the girl who is, for all intents and purposes, trying to steal her man. Even Remus, another known sweetheart, would have gone harder and dragged this Caroline girl through the proverbial mud if he were in her position. 

“Honestly, though, what is he thinking?” Remus gives to Lily, who shoots him an incredulous, but agreeing look. 

“I told you, total knob behavior out of that boy. To be fair, though, ever since fucking Caroline has been hanging around I’ve really given in to my petty side,” Lily admits, a sheepish yet evil grin spreading over her face. Remus’s eyebrows shoot up and he gestures his hand in front of him, begging her to go on. Lily was one of the smartest, most level-headed people Remus had ever met, so the thought of her subjecting James to intentional pettiness was just about the greatest thing he’d ever heard.

“Oh, Remus, it’s like I’m embarrassed to admit this but entirely proud at the same time? And there’s no way he can’t see what I’m doing, it’s totally obvious. I single him out in conversations and completely ignore her existence on this earth, dress super hot if she’s around, wear extra perfume, all that,” she tells him frankly, as if these are the  _ obvious  _ flirt tactics to use when your crush is bringing around someone new. “But get this one, I’m quite chuffed with how it went. I stopped over the boys’ place last weekend just after I finished up at the shops so I brought all my new clothes with me, right?” 

Remus nods encouragingly. “Right, right, and?” He presses.

“And I bought a few new swimming costumes for camp, and obviously needed opinions on which ones to keep…” she trails off, giving Remus a look that told him to connect the dots himself. 

“You did not,” he tells her soberly, a full on grin taking over his face. He’s imagining Lily strutting about James’s apartment in her swimsuits, while he had another girl present no less, and him absolutely drooling over the show. He’d already witnessed first hand the enamored looks he showers her with while she’s wearing the awful forest green Wolfstar t-shirt, so picturing his face during the scene Lily’s describing isn’t very hard at all. 

“I did. I fucked her off so bad, Remus, it felt so good. She bitched at James, stormed out, slammed the door, the whole shebang. Apparently hasn’t talked to him since,” she smirks, and Remus gives her an awe filled grin back. 

“Lily,” he puts out, scandalized. “Who knew this level of petty existed in this small little package,” Remus teases her, patting down on the top of her head. 

“None of us, apparently, cause you should have seen Sirius’s face when it was going down. He hunted me down for a congratulatory high-five after fucking Caroline finally beat it,” she puffs, taking the teasing with grace. 

“So Sirius wasn’t her biggest fan either, I guess?” Remus asks.

“Yeah, no. I’m not even trying to be mean when I say this girl is  _ dense _ , and I know I’ve said my fair share about James being a dumbass but he’s actually quite intelligent, and watching him dumb himself down to this girl’s level was getting very old very fast,” says Lily, with the air about her that she did her friends a favor by chasing away this Caroline character. 

“You’ve so been holding out on me, you cunning little minx!” Remus throws at her one more time, making sure his point is drilled into her head so hopefully she’ll come running to him with all of her gossip. While Remus was never one to spread rumors, secrets, or gossip, that did not mean he didn’t thrive off of receiving sensitive intel. “Well, what now? Are you going to talk to him about it, or what?” He persists. 

Lily takes a deep breath and stares blankly at the closed window, internally weighing the pros and cons of doing such a thing, before saying, “Or what.”

While Remus is nowhere near finished psychoanalysing the Lily-James situation and deeply insisting, regardless of the results of said analysis, that she throw the poor guy a bone for all his years of effort, he is assaulted by both cups of tea and all the water he consumed that morning and needs the restroom rather urgently. He peeps over to the middle-aged man beside Lily and is relieved to see the man is alive and well, flipping haphazardly through the airline magazine that’s stuffed in the folded compartment behind each seat. 

Remus gives Lily a pointed look. “Okay, we aren’t done here, but I really need to pee,” he tells her candidly, to which she smirks and nods, pulling her legs into her seat to offer Remus as much room to scoot by as possible. She turns to the man next to her and tells him in her sweetest voice that she doesn’t want to be a bother, but her friend needs the loo and wants to get by, to which the man smiles fondly and slips right out of his seat to wait idle in the aisle.

“Cheers,” Remus says to the both of them, an extra grin to Lily for saving him from prodding the stranger, and is off to the front of the plane to the closest restroom. 

He tries to make it to the front of the plane without bumping into anyone and does so successfully, barring one hip bump to a sleeping woman whose head was bobbing to far left for her own good, and apart from James and Sirius who Remus hears snicker from their seats a row back, nobody else seemed to see the flub. He patiently waits for the person in front of him to make her way out of the bathroom before relieving himself of the morning’s liquids and scrubbing his hands right quick, exiting the miniature bathroom stall and wiping his hands on his pants to dry.

Remus is aiming to send something snarky in James’s and Sirius’s direction after the hip-bump, but stops short when he gets to their seats to find not two, but one boy sitting. 

“Where’s James,” questions Remus, quite positive he did not pass James on the way out of the restroom. He eyes the back of the plane to see if he’s waiting outside the loo on that end, but no James yet.

“Sit down and strap in, buddy. Your seat’s been nicked,” Sirius responds, not looking up from the airline magazine once while addressing Remus. 

“You taking the piss? I was gone two minutes,” Remus scoffs, craning his head in order to see James’s dark, wild locks sticking up exactly where Remus, and all of his belongings, were to be situated. 

“Two minutes too long,” Sirius laughs, finally looking up to catch Remus’s eyes. He pats the aisle seat next to him expectantly, and when Remus eyes the seat apprehensively but still does not sit, he huffs and rolls his eyes. 

“Seriously, you’re not getting that seat back, not any time soon at least. I could have warned you James would be on the hunt for an opportunity to slip over there, but between you and I, those two have some shit they need to work out,” he rambles exhaustedly, clearly referring to the other end of the same gossip Remus had just received. 

That tidbit does pique Remus’s interest enough to make him gingerly take a seat next to Sirius, and he takes a moment to carefully craft his next words as to not give away that he knows exactly what Sirius is talking about. He tilts his head slightly, in a curious puppy kind of way, and innocently questions Sirius.

“Shit to work out?” 

Sirius gives Remus a slight peep out of the side of his eyes, moving them from the page he’s currently looking at in the entirely boring-looking magazine, but he was the second person Remus had seen engulfed in its pages since being on the plane so it must have some interesting substance. Sirius is clearly contemplating giving up a bit more of his James-Lily knowledge to Remus, a literal stranger in his books, and Remus doubles back to comfort Sirius into loosening his lips and spilling what he knows. 

“I mean, it’s basically impossible to ignore whatever tension is between them, and it’s written all over James’s face whenever she so much as walks near him,” he states, matter-of-fact, and poor Sirius must be pining for someone to blab with about his best friends caught in a flirtationship, because his demeanor lights up immediately and he quickly flips the magazine closed. He turns his body to slightly face Remus and he leans in, eyes lit up in excitement that Remus had clocked as much by himself and Sirius wouldn’t have to expose his friends unsolicited. 

“Right? It’s so obvious. James won’t bloody tell me what’s going on, the git, but I know something’s happened. I feel it in my bones, Remus,” Sirius tells him with quite the dramatic flair, clutching both of his hands to his chest in demonstration. 

“What do you think happened between them? It’s strange, I was just telling Lily that in all the time we spent together this term, she never once mentioned she had a guy absolutely head over heels for her, so they’re both definitely holding their cards close to their chests,” Remus comments conversationally, almost but not really feeling bad for playing his part as unsuspecting-new-guy all too well. Sirius huffs, not at Remus but in frustration, probably with being left out of the loop.

“I don’t fucking know but I’m fucking livid. James, my best friend, my brother, keeping secrets from me. Where does he get off?” Sirius spouts. 

_ In his bed with Lily _ .

Remus keeps that thought to himself and fends off the smirk that threatens to overtake his mouth, listening as Sirius goes on, letting the boy get his feelings off his chest. 

“And Pete’s no fucking help at all, he didn’t even notice when Lily started to act different. As if he thought Lily parading around our apartment half naked was  _ normal _ behavior. I mean I know my fashion sense is impeccable,” Sirius gives to Remus with a wave of the hand that Remus is sure means ‘obviously’ before he continues on. “But since when does she ask for my opinion on anything she wears? I don’t give a shit? Wear a rubbish bin for all I care?” He sasses, eliciting an unexpected peal of laughter out of Remus. 

The sound of Remus’s laughter adds fuel to his rant, and a grin begins to creep onto Sirius’s own face when he charges on. 

“And then she decides she doesn’t want to be alone with the boy at all ever, which surely she didn’t consider the way that would affect mine and James’s relationship because the more she avoided him, the more time she inevitably spent with me and had James acting like a green fool, accusing me of encroaching on his lady, which is absolutely  _ mad  _ considering we all know--” Sirius’s rant is cut off abruptly by the woman sitting on his opposite side. 

“Shh!” 

Sirius and Remus catch each others’ gazes right quick, and Remus flings his hand over his mouth to contain the fit of giggles he knows is about to come on. Sirius has an owlish look take over his face, sporting two wide eyes and an ‘o’ shape of a mouth. He doesn’t even attempt to be discreet and cover his laughter, but he does lean in even further towards Remus’s face to conceal his whispers.

“Did she seriously just shush me?” 

Another giggle from behind Remus’s hand breaks free, and he moves it aside for a moment.

“I think you’ve just been shushed!” He affirms.

“Do people still do that?”

“I mean, clearly, seeing as she just shushed you,” Remus bickers back playfully, to which Sirius rolls his eyes and shoves a hand into Remus’s right shoulder. 

“Oh, I’m going to get her back, I’m going to shush her so good,” he whispers at the very bottom of his voice, and Remus grins in return, unable to conceal his laughter or amusement at Sirius’s plane antics thus far.

Since they’re sitting mere inches from each other, Remus finds himself collecting the features on Sirius’s face and putting them to memory subconsciously. His eyes are a living contradiction; they’re strikingly icy blue, a dark navy ring surrounding the pale color in the middle of the iris, but they hold such a warm, welcoming gaze that Remus finds himself completely un-intimidated by them in the moment, a new experience for Remus. The tops of his incredibly sculpted cheekbones are rosy red, possibly from the shushing although he played it off as though he couldn’t have given less of a shit about being called out like that, and his full lips exude the same rouge color as his skin. As Remus is putting together that his plush bottom lip is shining with wetness from his tongue, Sirius speaks again and pulls him from his facial examination. 

“Anyway,” he whispers loudly, throwing a salty look to his left. “James, the emotional little lad he is, says Lily’s been giving him mixed messages for a while now. He’s been trying to capture her alone for more than two minutes for weeks now, and I’ve got to give it to him, the plane was a pretty clever move.” 

Remus can’t even deny the truth of the statement, and as a mostly un-biased individual, he agrees that the two of them should probably work their shit out. Although, Remus remembers Lily’s response to his question about whether she was going to do something about their dancing around one another or not, and he feels a bit bad for leaving her to the wolves. 

“The cleverest of moves,” Remus agrees while standing from his seat and entering back into the aisle. Sirius watches him rise and it’s his turn to present puppy-like qualities, his eyes turning wide and filling with innocent sadness. His mouth opens, shuts, and then opens again before he speaks.

“Wait, don’t go,” he says sadly, and Remus’s heart gives an unwarranted pang looking at his sweet face filled with offense. Remus shakes his head quickly, not wanting to hurt his new friend’s feelings.

“No, no, I’ll be back, I just want to grab my things,” he explains quickly, and just like that Sirius’s grin is back in place and he gives Remus a nod of permission to collect his belongings. He faces forward in his seat again and flips the magazine open to the page he was focused on before they were sucked into each other’s conversation. 

Remus’s head spins at how quickly Sirius was just able to switch moods and send him reeling in opposite directions with a few words and simple looks. Remus swallows harshly, his mouth feeling rather dry, and pushes down a feeling he’d kept deep below the surface of his chest for quite some time. He steps up to the row of seats that used to be where his was located, and takes in the scene before him. 

Lily and James are taking up a position quite similar to that of Remus and Sirius’s just moments prior, except instead of stifled giggles and grins threatening to overtake their faces, Lily and James have matching scowls and furrowed brows. They, too, are mere inches from one another, but the tension radiating off of them is palpable, and Remus swears the nice man who let him out to use the loo is sending him telepathic pleads for help through his gaze. 

Remus sticks his hands in his pockets uncomfortably, wishing one of them would notice his presence instead of having to make himself known, but no such luck comes his way. 

“Ahem,” he tries lightly. The two continue whisper-fighting with not even a slight pause of acknowledgement. 

“Guys, could you--” Lily’s voice climbs higher, trying to drown out whatever ponce who’s speaking behind her, aka Remus himself. 

“YO,” Remus puts out loudly, and he internally winces at the amount of stares he draws their way. Finally, though, both Lily and James silence themselves and look at Remus with sheepish grimaces. 

“Thank you much, I just came over to ask for my bag, please,” Remus says, smiling to avoid addressing the tension in the row, and he watches as Lily tucks one of the shorter locks of hair that usually frames her face behind her ear just to busy her hands. James doesn’t look pleased with the interjection from Remus by any means but is all too polite as he passes Remus the backpack. 

“Cheers,” Remus puts out before being halted from leaving by James, who still has a hand gripped on the strap of the backpack. 

“Tell Sirius I miss him dearly,” James smirks, and Remus is happy to see this face rather than his brooding one. Although he quite expected an apology for giving Remus the ol’ switcheroo, he laughs and nods, turning away before he has to witness any more of their argument and before he can be guilted into changing seats with the poor man next to them. Remus inwardly laughs at the thought of Sirius’s face if that man turned up next to him because Remus sacrificed himself to listen to those two sods fight for the remainder of the flight. 

He turns up again at his new seat, relaying James words of longing to Sirius, and sticks the backpack on the floor between his legs before pulling out his book and flipping to the page he dog-eared earlier on. He makes a mental note to himself to stop the flight attendant at her next walk about the plane to request another tea. 

“Whatcha got there?” 

Remus looks to his right where Sirius has both elbows leaned on the arm rest between the two and his chin resting upon his fists. Remus raises the book, that he’s now flipped the left pages and cover behind the right so just the page on the right can be seen, in one hand and raises one eyebrow in Sirius’s direction. 

“Oh, just something I’ve read a hundred times. Kind of a comfort thing,” Remus explains vaguely. He’s in no way intending on explaining the book to Sirius, and he had rather hoped he wouldn’t ask. 

He raises his eyebrows back to Remus and nods, eyes flicking down to the page Remus is turned to, and Remus thanks whatever gods exist that the page doesn’t include any fiery, lust filled sex scenes so Sirius can’t catch a glimpse of that verbage. 

Remus’s cheeks burn at the mere thought, and he jumps on an opportunity to switch subjects. 

“Speaking of reading material, surely that thing can’t be that interesting,” Remus states, giving the airline magazine on Sirius’s lap a flick with his middle finger. Sirius’s attention is that easily diverted. 

“Oh ho ho, that’s what you think, that’s what  _ everyone  _ thinks, but I swear to god it’s so much richer than you’d expect.” This sends Sirius into a spiel regarding the contents of the magazine, and how they always seem to include book and movie reviews and suggestions that he’s never heard of before, and there’s apparently always a page with the newest, coolest tech gadgets on the market. 

“I always find Christmas gifts in these things. I’m not kidding, like every year,” Sirius gushes, and launches into a full on presentation for Remus of each notable item in the magazine, and Remus is so enthralled by Sirius’s genuine enthusiasm of sharing the hidden gems within, he slips his book back into his pack and forgets about it for the time being. 

The two chit chat and joke around for a solid chunk of time, both enjoying a round of tea and even a hot meal to Remus’s ultimate surprise. Sirius teases Remus for his doe-eyed look as the food was placed before him. 

“It’s like you’ve never traveled before,” he points out to Remus, shoving a meatball from his plate into his mouth. 

Remus shrugs, taking a bite out of his own food before speaking around it. “Nice work, detective. That’s because I  _ haven’t  _ traveled. At least not by plane.” 

Sirius gapes at Remus in shock. “You mean I’m taking your seat-buddy-on-your-first-flight virginity?” 

Remus coughs directly into his water bottle and spends a few moments trying to stop the laughter long enough to swallow the rest of the contents in his mouth, and Sirius gives him a couple of hard pats to the back. 

Remus wipes the wetness from his eyes, half from the coughing fit and half from the laugh, before swatting Sirius’s hands back. 

“Yes, I suppose you are.”

Sirius gives Remus an impish grin before leaning close. “Have I been good, then? Don’t let me down, I’ve never been critiqued on my form before,” he kids, and although it’s just a joke, Remus can’t help the flush that’s creeping up his neck. He chooses to ignore that and play along. 

“I mean, I’ve been quite satisfied up until now, but don’t let that glowing review keep you from finishing strong,” Remus fires back, feeling utterly joyous at the grin overtaking Sirius’s face. His eyes are filled with not only excitement at the fact that Remus is playing along, but wonder, too, although the reason for that is harder for Remus to pin down. 

“I only ever finish strong,” Sirius assures with a wink, and Remus’s stomach just about drops out of the plane and freefalls through the sky. He straightens up in his seat, shoving his fork into his food and scolds himself inwardly. He’d been on this trip for approximately six hours; he could not be lusting over his friend’s friend who he planned on befriending and spending the entire summer with. Especially not after knowing the guy for five whole seconds. 

Refusing to give up how flustered the wink had him, Remus smiles back at Sirius.

“I’ll let you know how you’ve done after we’ve landed.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, it means so much!


End file.
